Notes from Nehemiah

Don'tcha' Love, Love, Love mornings when it's still dark outside, everyone else is still sleeping, the coffee is hot and a new day is about to begin. I love the thought of fresh starts, new beginnings, and morning is my favorite time of day... when I can get my sorry fat butt out of the sack! Anyhow, morning it is and another day is upon us. Last night at Bible Study (we are studying Nehemiah), we were talking about what makes an influential person. The question was posed... Think of someone in your life who has a positive influence on you... why? what characteristics do they have that make them influential. Of course the group was pretty quiet, those are some pretty heavy questions, but I am intrieged by the different responses.. and so I put it out to the blogsphere... What qualities make someone influential in your life? I came up with consistency (fleeting friendships come easy... are you in it for the long haul... even when it gets tough???), honesty - they tell it like it is (usually without being hurtfull, although sometimes the truth hurts a bit), kindness, and compassion, they see your needs and come along side, and also vulnerability - the flip side, they allow me to be there for them, being honest about where they need me as well ... a gal always needs to be needed right??? Anyhow, it was really an interesting study, we then discussed how we can be influential in other people's lives putting into practice prayer AND action. How often do we say "if there is anything i can do....." or "i'll pray for you....". These are some thoughts to ponder for all of you out there, how do you influence people???? Hmmmm... I'm pretty sure I drive them to drink, but... I'm workin' on that :-) Hope your day is as full of promise as mine appears to be, I'm off to shower... always good to start the day clean :-) Don't forget to weigh in..

Birthday Party Shinanigans

Our littlest man attended his very first birthday party yesterday sans mommies. It's like a rite of passage. A little hard, we had tears over the present that was to GIVE away. He woke with the words "I just can't get up mommy, I'm too jelous of Isaac!", these moments morphed into excited rantings over the activities to be, which then morphed into tears that it wasn't time to go, by noon I was ready to go insane, madly rooting around in my head for any parenting technique I may have learned over my 14 year journey... nada. I finally relied on distraction. It worked. In the end, he had a fantastic time, Isaac enjoyed his presents, Isaac's mom says that our son did not throw a fit... I'm not so sure I believe her, but nonetheless, it was an enjoyable afternoon for all!

hmmmm.....

I don't know how it is that an entire week can pass and I have nothing to say!!! I mean really, this is me we're dealing with! Nothing to say??? hmmm... probably I am the most talkative, o.k, noisy, obnoxious person on the planet, yet when it comes time to try to say something profound, or that sounds moderately interesting about my life... hmmm.... I got nothin'. This is what's been up lateley. Saw a couple movies: "The Nanny Diaries" Scarlette Johansen is hot, but the movie, not so much, O.K, just not fantastic. Saw "Hairspray" LOVED ITTTTTTT!!! Loved every obnoxious song!!!! Especially when the mr. and mrs. tunblad, are singing to each other... awwwww! My most current pet peeve, is my cats.... when you open the door for them because they are meowing like the house is on fire, and they stand there staring at the -40 degree weather, with their tail in the air and then turn around and walk back in..I know how they feel, I'm a little jelous that there is nothing beyond these doors that is so important that they need to brave the weather, none the less, it is irritating, and still..... they haven't "done their buisness" hmmmm. We're still eating healthy... impressive huh? Also, I am still hitting the virtual track... not bad eh? We're three weeks into it and this week I have run 16 miles, I love it.... when it's over! Actually my biggest new years resolution was to not hit snooze.... EVER! Still good on that one, I figure snooze is slowly robbing my life! Nevertheless, I still can't manage to leave for work on time. Well, there is always next years resolutions. Oh, yeah and the healthy thing, I've got a few great recipies that we've come accross, like last nights dinner when my parents were over..... Jambalaya, "simple" salmon (has become a staple), and a yummy tirimasu type dessert that is NOT on my eating healthy list! Kids, let seee...... Tannis is FURIOUS with us bcause we won't let her go skiing on a bus to westcastle with her friend and said friend's 16 year old brother for the day.... Uh..... NO! We've got tears, whinning, gnashing of teeth! Veeeery unlike Tannis, but still.... NO. Finally Jamie has made peace by offering to take them skiing over Feb break, whew, crisis averted, are we unreasonable??? Actually, I don't care, the answer is still NO, no daytrips to other cities, ski hills, towns, countries when you're 13, sorry... nope :-) Taylor is writing exams... lots of days off, I think she will enjoy them... study??? we'll see. Connor, is back from skiing with the Bezooyens, and had a blast... yes, Connor got to go... with a FAMILY! He had fun and is still recovering. Ben has learned to count to ONE HUNDRED!!!! It is wayyyy cute, but difficult to listen to AGAIN! Jamie is loving school, and our new routine, if only he could get paid for going to school! Really everything is just honkey dorey here, boring, boring, but that's what I love. So, that's our little corner of the world for this week, Peace out! I'm off to work... 15 min to shower and get there... oops :-)

Healthy Choices

O.K, so EVERYONE in our house has "resloved" to eat healthier (well, maybe not Ben, we're thinking of enlisitng him in a five step program for sugar addicts! :-). Jamie and I want to set a good example for the kids, and the kids are in on the madness, we've seen a transformation, kids are reaching for salad and vegetables, after a couple weeks of holidays the kids have emptied all the cupboards, including the produce drawer... so far so good. We've been eating lots of produce, brown rice, whole grains, lots of fibre, but it's tricky. I still haven't figured out how to master the sodium factor... well, that being said, I'm running out of plans... already, and lasagna is sounding like a viable option for dinner, Pizza pops a tempting snack option. We've done salmon, we've done stir frys but we need MORE variety to keep us on track, so, I'm looking for your best HEALTHY recipie. I figured this would be a good place to start collecting, well... on that note I'm off to finish my oatmeal and apple! Take care and PLEASE, leave us a comment or a link to your favorite HEALTHY treat!